Denver defeats University of Northern Colorado Bears in final seconds of game

DENVER — Joe Rosga wasn't a threat to the University of Northern Colorado men's basketball team Saturday afternoon — except in the last 20 seconds, that is.

Rosga drained a 3-pointer in the final seconds — his only basket of the day — to help the University of Denver to a 73-70 victory over UNC at Magness Arena before a crowd of 3,421.

The loss drops UNC to 3-7 with one more nonconference game before Big Sky Conference play begins. DU is 6-5.

"Give credit to DU, they're finding ways to win games," UNC coach Jeff Linder said in a news release. "That's not the first time Rosga's done that. He did it against Weber State."

Rosga did it against UNC when it counted, but Linder blamed himself for not altering UNC's defense on the Pioneers' last possession.

"That's on me," Linder said. "We probably should have run someone else in (on defense) and made someone else beat us."

Recommended Stories For You

UNC was called for traveling on the final possession of the game with 1 second left.

It was more than Rosga that was detrimental to the Bears.

"As I told the guys, that last play isn't the reason we lost the game," Linder said in the release. "There were a bunch of little mistakes over the course of the game that's going to happen with a young team. The turnover were tough, but we're making progress."

The Bears had 18 turnovers, but DU had only 19 points off of UNC's miscues.

UNC scrambled to a 10-point lead in the second half as Jordan Davis, DJ Miles and Ibrahim Sylla finally received some help at the offensive end after being the only three Bears to score in the first half.

Miles led the Bears with 22 points and was 14 for 15 from the line while Davis added 14 to go with three rebounds and three assists.

The Bears were 10 for 25 from beyond the arc, but struggled early on, hitting just four howitzers in the first half.

In the second half, the Pioneers went on a 14-4 run over a 7-minute span to go ahead 34-43 with 8:59 left to play.

The Bears put together a mini run to tie the game at 59 with 2:45 left to play.

The rest of the game was primarily played at the free-throw line, and the score was tied five times in the final five minutes.

A 3-pointer by DU's Jake Krafka was answered by a 3-pointer by UNC's Chaz Glotta and the Bears eventually tied it at 70 on a 3-pointer by Jon'te Dotson.

DU's final possession started with 20 seconds on the clock and ended with Rosga hitting the game winner.

"At the end of the day, you're going to take your chances and make other (DU) guys try to beat you," Linder added. "I think our team did a pretty good job of following the scouting report, and now we've put two games together against two really good offensive teams. We're making steps in the right direction, and if we keep doing that, the scoreboard is going to take care of itself."

The Bears will close out the pre-Christmas part of their schedule at 6 p.m. on Tuesday against UC Riverside at Bank of Colorado Arena.